{"id":93979,"date":"2015-09-10T09:41:18","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T14:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2015\/09\/10\/science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T12:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:12:05","slug":"science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2015\/09\/10\/science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Knowledge Is Higher Among Highly Educated Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"College<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. And those with a college degree or higher tend to perform better on the toughest questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adults with a college or postgraduate degree are more than twice as likely to get at least eight out of 12 questions right, compared with adults with a high school diploma or less (82% vs. 40%). Those with a postgraduate degree score an average of 9.5 correct answers out of 12, while those with a high school education or less get an average of 6.8 correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fully 57% of adults with a postgraduate degree get 10 to 12 correct answers, whereas this is true for 18% of those with a high school diploma or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On all 12 questions, there is at least a 13 percentage point difference in correct answers between the highest- and lowest-educated groups. The largest difference is found in a question about the loudness of a sound. A 62% majority of those with a postgraduate degree correctly identify the amplitude (height) of the sound wave as determining its loudness, as do 52% of those with a four-year college degree. By contrast, 20% of those with a high school education or less answer this question correctly. And there is a 34-point gap between these groups in correctly interpreting a scatterplot chart from among a list of four options. Half (50%) of those with a high school diploma or less answer this question correctly, compared with 84% among those who completed a postgraduate degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences by education in science knowledge were also found in previous Pew Research surveys on this topic, as detailed in a later section<\/a>. These findings are also consistent with analysis of the factual science knowledge index in the National Science Board\u2019s Science and Engineering Indicators<\/a>. That research finds higher education levels associated with more factual knowledge of science. College graduates who took at least three college-level courses in science or mathematics have higher levels of knowledge about science than do those who took fewer science and math courses.[12. numoffset=”12″ Science and Engineering Indicators 2014, See Chapter 7<\/a>, Figure 7-7]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. And those with a college degree or higher tend to perform better on the toughest questions. 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